A Nation of New Names: Comparing the Renaming Agendas of the Biden and Trump Administrations

The power to name — and rename — is one of the quieter but more revealing dimensions of presidential authority. From mountain peaks to military bases, from federal buildings to the bodies of water that define the continent, the names a government assigns to its public landscape carry cultural weight far beyond the practical need of a label. In the past decade, no two administrations have exercised that power more actively — or more ideologically — than those of Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Between 2021 and 2026, these two presidents oversaw the renaming or rebranding of hundreds of federal assets, often in direct opposition to each other, turning the American map into a living record of competing national identities.

This article examines, in quantifiable detail, what each president changed, why, how much it cost, and what the divergence tells us about the broader political moment.

The Biden Approach: Mass Erasure of Derogatory and Confederate Legacies

Joe Biden entered office in January 2021 with a stated commitment to advancing equity across federal institutions. While he did not run on a sweeping renaming platform, his administration became the vehicle for two of the largest coordinated federal renaming efforts in modern American history: the removal of a racial slur from roughly 650 geographic features, and the congressionally-mandated renaming of nine Army bases that had honored Confederate officers.

The "Squaw" Renaming Campaign: ~650 Geographic Features

The most voluminous single act of federal renaming in the Biden era began on November 19, 2021, when Interior Secretary Deb Haaland issued Secretarial Order 3404, formally declaring the word "squaw" — a term historically used as a slur against Native American women — a derogatory label and ordering its removal from all federal usage, particularly by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN).

Haaland, herself a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe and the first Native American Cabinet secretary in U.S. history, established the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force, led by the U.S. Geological Survey with participation from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and others. The task force received more than 1,000 public recommendations for name changes and conducted nation-to-nation consultations with nearly 70 Tribal governments, generating several hundred additional proposals.

By September 2022, the BGN had voted to approve approximately 650 new names for mountains, lakes, creeks, valleys, and other geographic features across the country. The changes were geographically sweeping, affecting sites in at least 40 states. Arizona alone saw 66 place names altered.

The renamed features ranged from the well-known to the obscure:

• Squaw Gulch (Placer County, California) → Mani'pa Gulch
• Squaw Lake (Hinsdale County, Colorado) → Grizzly Lake
• Squaw Mountain (Utah County, Utah) → Kyhv Peak

The replacements were developed in consultation with tribal governments and local communities, reflecting Indigenous language, local ecology, or community history. A secondary secretarial order, Order 3405, created a Federal Advisory Committee to address additional derogatory place names beyond "squaw," broadening the potential scope of future renaming.

This effort dwarfed anything attempted in living memory at the federal level. It was, in raw numerical terms, the single largest geographic renaming campaign by a presidential administration in the post-war era.

Nine Confederate Army Bases: Renamed 2023

A separate but equally consequential renaming effort unfolded through Congress, not executive order. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2021 — passed over Trump's veto in the final days of his first term — established an eight-member Naming Commission charged with recommending new names for nine Army installations that had been named after Confederate officers in the early 20th century.

The commission delivered its recommendations in June 2022. The Army carried out all nine official renamings in 2023, completing the last ceremony in October of that year. The full list, with their old and new names:

The cost of these nine renamings escalated substantially. Originally estimated at $21 million by the Naming Commission, the figure had nearly doubled by 2023, with final costs landing around $39 million — covering new signage, updated addresses, revised official correspondence, website changes, vehicle markings, and more.

Federal Buildings and Individual Legislative Actions

Beyond the mass renaming campaigns, the Biden administration supported and signed into law a handful of specific federal building renamings:

• In April 2023, Biden signed legislation designating the U.S. Department of Transportation headquarters as the William T. Coleman, Jr. and Norman Y. Mineta Federal Building, honoring two historic Secretaries of Transportation, both of whom broke racial barriers in public service.
• A bipartisan bill authorized renaming a Memphis federal courthouse the Odell Horton Federal Building, replacing a name associated with white supremacy with that of a noted civil rights jurist.

These individual congressional renamings are a routine feature of American governance — dozens of post offices, courthouses, and federal buildings change names each Congress — but the Biden administration signed several with particular historical or racial equity significance.

Biden Administration: The Running Tally

The Trump Approach: Branding, Restoration, and Nationalist Reimagining

Donald Trump's second administration, which began on January 20, 2025, pursued renaming with a fundamentally different philosophy. Where Biden's changes aimed at erasure — of Confederate legacies and derogatory language — Trump's aimed at assertion: of national pride, of American exceptionalism, of his own personal brand. The approach was simultaneously restorative (reversing Biden-era changes) and additive (attaching Trump's name or nationalist nomenclature to landmarks, programs, and institutions).

Day One: Executive Order 14172, "Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness"

Trump wasted no time. Executive Order 14172, signed on his first day back in office, set the tone for his entire renaming agenda. Titled "Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness," it directed two immediate geographic changes:

1. Gulf of Mexico → Gulf of America

The order instructed the Secretary of the Interior to rename the U.S. portion of the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America," covering the entire continental shelf bounded by Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, extending to the maritime boundaries with Mexico and Cuba. A follow-up Secretarial Order No. 3423 on February 7, 2025 directed the BGN to update the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) immediately. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum announced the official change on February 9, 2025, the same day Trump declared "Gulf of America Day."

Google Maps updated its platform to reflect "Gulf of America" for U.S. users on February 11, 2025. The name applies only within U.S. federal usage; internationally, the body of water remains the Gulf of Mexico.

2. Denali → Mount McKinley

The same executive order restored the name "Mount McKinley" to North America's highest peak, reversing a 2015 Obama-era change made under Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, which had formalized Alaska's long-standing use of the Indigenous name "Denali." Trump's order gave the Interior Department 30 days to reinstate "Mount McKinley" in all federal systems and specified that the surrounding Denali National Park and Preserve would retain its name.

The Alaska House of Representatives pushed back in a bipartisan 28-10 vote, passing House Joint Resolution 4 requesting the federal government continue recognizing the mountain as Denali — a name rooted in the Athabascan word meaning "the high one," used by Indigenous peoples for centuries.

Lake Ontario Becomes "Lake America": August 2026

In the most recent and internationally contentious geographic renaming, Trump signed Executive Order 14420 in late August 2026, renaming Lake Ontario "Lake America." The move was widely interpreted as an escalation in the ongoing trade dispute with Canada, as Lake Ontario is a shared body of water along the U.S.-Canada border.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney publicly noted that "Ontario" derives from the Wendat word Ontari'io, a name more than 400 years old — predating both the United States and Canadian Confederation. Canada has no intention of changing its maps. Google Maps updated its display for U.S. users, paralleling the Gulf of America precedent.

The renaming prompted mockery and counter-moves from Democratic governors, with Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker sarcastically declaring Lake Michigan would henceforth be "Lake Illinois."

Reversing the Military Base Renamings

One of the more complex chapters in Trump's renaming campaign involved the nine Army bases Biden had renamed in 2023. Because Congress mandated the original renaming through the NDAA, Trump's administration could not simply sign an executive order restoring the Confederate names outright — Congress controls statutory naming. Instead, the administration pursued a workaround: the bases would revert to names sounding like the original Confederate officers' surnames, but honoring different soldiers with the same last name.

• Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) → Fort Bragg, now honoring Private First Class Roland L. Bragg, a World War II hero
• Fort Moore (formerly Fort Benning) → Fort Benning, now honoring Cpl. Fred G. Benning, a World War I Distinguished Service Cross recipient

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the renaming of Fort Moore back to Fort Benning in March 2025. A further announcement in June 2025 indicated that seven of the nine bases would revert to their original names under this same legal mechanism.

Critics argued the maneuver was transparently intended to restore honor to Confederate figures under a legal fig leaf. Supporters argued the original renamings had been politically motivated erasure of military tradition.

Renaming the Department of Defense

In one of the most sweeping institutional rebranding efforts since the National Security Act of 1947 — which itself created "Defense" out of the old "War Department" — Trump signed Executive Order 14347 on September 5, 2025, directing the Department of Defense to operate under the informal name "Department of War."

The order did not — and legally could not — formally change the statutory name, which requires an Act of Congress. Instead, "Department of War" became a "secondary title" usable in official correspondence, ceremonial contexts, and non-statutory documents. The department's website was rerouted from defense.gov to war.gov. Signage outside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's office was changed. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the full cost of a comprehensive rebrand, if ever legislatively formalized, could range from $10 million to $125 million in a modest implementation — and potentially up to $2 billion if the change were applied to all classified and unclassified digital systems and physical signage worldwide.

The Kennedy Center: Adding a President's Name to a Memorial

In December 2025, the board of trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted unanimously to prioritize the addition of Donald Trump's name to the institution, renaming it the Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, or informally, the "Trump Kennedy Center." New exterior signage was installed on the building's facade, under blue tarps, while workers operated from scaffolding.

Legal experts and members of the Kennedy family objected, pointing out that only Congress can change the official name of a congressionally-designated memorial. The move generated sustained controversy and litigation, with courts weighing in on whether the board had authority to act absent congressional approval. As of mid-2026, the legal fight continued.

The U.S. Institute of Peace and Other Institutional Renamings

On December 3, 2025, the exterior of the United States Institute of Peace headquarters in Washington was relabeled the Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace, making it the first federal building formally named after a sitting U.S. president. The State Department authorized the change following the administration's takeover of the agency's board.

Additional branding efforts included:

• TrumpRx: A federal drug-pricing platform launched under Trump's name, where consumers can access manufacturer-negotiated prescription medication prices
• Trump Gold Card: A fast-track investor visa program marketed as a premium residency pathway at a cost of $1 million to $5 million
• Trump Accounts: Treasury-managed investment accounts for newborns, authorized by the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" of 2025 and launched on July 4
• Trump Boulevard: Southern Boulevard in West Palm Beach, Florida — a four-mile stretch connecting Palm Beach International Airport to Mar-a-Lago — was ceremonially renamed President Donald J. Trump Boulevard
• National Park Pass: The Interior Department's America the Beautiful pass had traditional scenic imagery replaced with a portrait of President Trump
• Gold Coin: The U.S. Mint released a gold coin bearing Trump's likeness to commemorate America's 250th anniversary

Pending or Proposed Renamings (Not Yet Completed)

Several high-profile renaming proposals remained in process or contested as of September 2026:

• Washington Dulles International Airport: Legislation introduced by Rep. Addison McDowell and colleagues in January 2025 would rename it "Donald J. Trump International Airport." As of this writing, no vote had passed.
• New York Penn Station: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy indicated interest in directing Amtrak to rename the nation's busiest transit hub, with "Trump Station" floated informally. Significant opposition from New York state officials and local representatives has stalled any action.

Trump Administration: The Running Tally

Side-by-Side Comparison

The Question of Numbers: Why the Asymmetry Matters

The raw numerical difference — Biden's 661+ changes vs. Trump's 17+ — can mislead if context is stripped away. Biden's massive advantage in total count comes almost entirely from a single, mass-action initiative targeting a specific derogatory term across hundreds of small geographic features: unnamed creeks, remote gulches, and obscure mountain summits scattered across 40 states. Most Americans would never encounter these places. The renaming, while symbolically significant and practically important to affected communities, did not reshape the experiential American landscape in a visceral way for most citizens.

Trump's renamings, by contrast, have been fewer in number but seismically visible. The Gulf of Mexico is referred to in weather forecasts, shipping reports, tourism materials, international correspondence, and on maps used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The Department of Defense occupies the largest office building in the world and employs over 1.3 million active-duty personnel. The Kennedy Center hosts hundreds of performances a year and is one of the most recognized arts institutions in the world. These renamings, even when contested or symbolic, carry enormous cultural resonance precisely because the underlying institutions are so central to American public life.

The asymmetry also reflects different theories of governance. Biden's administration deployed the administrative state — Interior Department task forces, geological surveys, tribal consultation processes — to execute gradual, systemic change. Trump has favored the executive declaration: sweeping, headline-generating orders signed in the Oval Office, their implementation and legality to be sorted out afterward.

Legal Fault Lines

Both administrations have operated near or at the edges of their legal authority, and courts have been drawn into both.

Biden's geographic renamings proceeded under well-established secretarial authority — the Interior Secretary has broad statutory power over the Board on Geographic Names. The army base renamings, though triggered by the Biden era, were congressionally mandated and therefore legally unimpeachable in their original form.

Trump's renamings have faced more consistent legal challenge. The Kennedy Center renaming was disputed on the grounds that only Congress can alter the official name of a congressionally-designated memorial. The "Department of War" rebrand is explicitly non-statutory; the Pentagon's formal legal name remains the Department of Defense. Trump's geographic changes — Gulf of America, Mount McKinley, Lake America — fall within established Interior authority for U.S. domestic naming purposes, but have no binding effect on international usage.

The cost of Trump's ambitions in this space also presents a political liability. The CBO's analysis of just the Department of War rebrand, if fully implemented, put the figure at $10 million on the low end and potentially $2 billion if digital systems across all classified and unclassified networks were updated. The Biden-era base renamings, originally budgeted at $21 million, came in at $39 million — a figure that Republicans repeatedly cited as wasteful, even as the Trump administration proceeded to reverse those changes at additional taxpayer expense.

Historical Context: This Is Not New, But the Pace Is

Federal geographic renaming is as old as the republic, and not inherently partisan. The Visual Capitalist's 2026 mapping of 60 years of U.S. renamings documents three mass renaming campaigns — in 1963, 1974, and 2022 — all of which removed derogatory terms from federal maps. Individual landmark renamings occur regularly: Cape Canaveral became Cape Kennedy in 1963, then reverted in 1973. Denali became Mount McKinley in 1917, then officially became Denali in 2015. Mount McKinley returned in 2025.

What is new is the speed, the scope, the self-referential character of the current naming landscape, and the degree to which names have become explicit political battlegrounds. When one administration's renamings are systematically reversed by the next, and when a sitting president places his own name on performing arts centers, drug pricing websites, savings accounts for infants, and national park passes, the act of naming has moved from administrative function to political theater — expensive, contested, and consequential.

Conclusion

Between 2021 and 2026, the Biden and Trump administrations together presided over more than 675 documented federal name changes, ranging from the obscure to the iconic. Biden's legacy in this domain is defined by the sheer volume of his initiatives — particularly the removal of a racial slur from ~650 geographic features and the congressionally-mandated renaming of nine Confederate-named Army bases — changes rooted in equity principles and executed through established institutional channels. Trump's second term has been defined by far fewer changes numerically, but ones of dramatically higher individual visibility: renaming the Gulf of Mexico, restoring Mount McKinley, rebranding the Pentagon's informal identity, and attaching his own name to an expanding list of federal institutions and programs.

The contrast between the two approaches — one systemic and anonymizing, one singular and self-aggrandizing — reflects the deeper divergence in how each administration understood the relationship between government and national identity. For Biden, names were a form of civic hygiene, clearing out inherited wrongs. For Trump, names are a form of inscription — stamping a vision, a personality, and a brand onto the American landscape for as long as the political winds allow. How long those inscriptions last will be, as ever, a question for the next administration.

Sources:

• Why Biden administration renamed 650 geographic features | Snopes.com
• Secretarial Order 3404 — Wikipedia
• Interior Department Completes Removal of "Sq___" from Federal Use | U.S. Department of the Interior
• With the last of nine base renamings, the Army helps cast aside the myth of the Confederacy | American Homefront Project
• The cost to rename 9 Confederacy-honoring Army bases has doubled | Military Times
• Biden Signs Bill Renaming USDOT Headquarters | Eno Center for Transportation
• Executive Order 14172 — Wikipedia
• Secretarial Order No. 3423: The Gulf of America | U.S. Department of the Interior
• Gulf of America Day, 2025 | White House
• Trump Renames Denali To Mount McKinley: Here's What To Know | Forbes
• Alaska House asks Trump and feds to reverse Denali naming decision | Alaska Beacon
• Trump signs executive order to rename Lake Ontario as 'Lake America' | NBC News
• Trump signs executive order renaming Lake Ontario to 'Lake America' | ABC News
• Hegseth orders Fort Moore changed back to Fort Benning | Yahoo News
• Trump says he's restoring the original Confederate names of these Army bases — but with new namesakes | CBS News
• Trump signs order renaming Pentagon 'Department of War' | ABC News
• Executive Order 14347 — Wikipedia
• Stars, Stripes and Spending: The Price Tag of Trump's Renaming Spree | U.S. News
• Kennedy Center gets new signage bearing Trump's name | CNN
• Branding of United States government programs and facilities after Donald Trump — Wikipedia
• 12 places Trump's name or image is being added by the federal government | NBC News
• Mapped: Lake America and 60 Years of U.S. Renamings | Visual Capitalist
• Democrats Backed Hundreds of Biden-Era Renamings, Now Blast Trump's 'Lake America' | Shore News Network
• Trump Administration Actions: Geographic Naming | Congress.gov
• The Department of War rebrand could cost $2 billion | Fast Company
• Next stop, Trump Station? Administration wants to rename New York's Penn Station | ABC7 New York